Warriors on the march

Golden State extend winning run to six games

The Golden State Warriors sent a message that the defending league champions are back on form with a dominating 135-114 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers at the Oracle Arena yesterday morning (Singapore time).

Philadelphia had won five of their last six, but found themselves hopelessly outgunned in the second half against the Warriors, who extended their winning streak to six games.

All six wins have been by 17 or more points, the longest such streak in franchise history.

Forward Kevin Durant returned from a one-game absence to lead all scorers with 29 points. Klay Thompson had 23 and Stephen Curry 22 for the Warriors, who shot 58.5 per cent from the field.

Durant sat out the game against Minnesota with a sore left thigh.

J.J. Redick finished with 17 points, French guard Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot came off the bench to score 15 and forward Dario Saric added 14 for the 76ers, who have now lost nine straight against Golden State.

They had a chance to take a lead at the end of the second quarter, but Warriors' Kevon Looney blocked Ben Simmons underneath the rim.

Looney got the ball which led to a three-pointer from Thompson to put Golden State up 65-64 at the half.

The Warriors had a scare in the first 24 minutes when they lost Curry for a few minutes after Simmons' knee banged into Curry's right thigh.

Curry headed to the locker room after a few seconds, but was gone only briefly. Once back, he wasted no time getting on the scoresheet again.

Elsewhere, Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris combined for 37 points as the Washington Wizards defeated the Atlanta Hawks 113-94. Beal tallied 19 points and Morris 18 as the Wizards improved to 7-5 on the NBA season.

Kelly Oubre Jr. also had 18 points for the Wizards, who won back-to-back games for the first time since opening the season 3-0.

Morris said that he is looking forward to the next couple of weeks when they face teams like Toronto and Miami that are higher in the standings.

"Not to take credit away from the (Los Angeles) Lakers and the Hawks, but they're not the best offensive teams. Once we get to those good teams, then we'll be able to measure what we have," Morris said. - AFP